***********************************************************************************
Five years ago, the National Trust under the Union
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched the “Sahyogi” scheme
to “provide, promote, create and maintain a pool of caregivers for
persons with disabilities”.
Under the scheme,
caregivers were trained by specially-trained trainers and deployed with
care-seekers. But with the scheme managing to train only about 2,000
caregivers across the country thus far — well short of the intended
target considering the demand for such trained helps — a pilot project
has now been launched in Delhi, under which leading registered
organisations with good capacity in training have been selected to train
20 caregivers each.
The idea is that these
registered organisations will work with each caregiver and allot them to
specific care-seekers so that good deployment can take place during
practical training, said Neeru Gautam, who is associated with the
Sahyogi caregiver scheme.
The earlier scheme was
implemented through Care Givers Cells (CGCs), established in selected
non-government organisations such as Action for Ability Development and
Inclusion (AADI) and Saarthak in Delhi and a third party administrator
(TPA), that is Sanjeevani India , which was engaged to coordinate and
network with all CGCs across the country and maintain the online portal —
www.sahyogi.org.
The 36 CGCs across the country
trained 2,024 caregivers. The scheme envisaged a new and shorter
training module — with 25 days of classroom training followed by a
four-month paid internship.
All components of the
scheme — training, networking and deployment of caregivers — were done
by the CGCs. But due to a huge mismatch in the number of caregivers and
care-seekers in different areas, the scheme failed to meet the
requirements of care-seekers in Delhi.
Under the
pilot project in the national Capital now, the master-trainer training
of two course coordinators from selected registered organisations of
Delhi has commenced at AADI in Hauz Khas from July 15. It will run up to
July 27.
Neeru, who is differently-abled herself,
said according to past experience, several problem areas needed tackling
to develop a significant pool of caregivers. So, as part of the
training, caregivers are also given a glimpse of the work at hand
through animated films.
“In some cases like mine,
where a person is suffering a high level of disability due to muscular
dystrophy or spine disorder or any other progressive disease, the
presence of a caregiver is required 24x7. Most caregivers want to go
back home after a few hours and so very few take up this work outside
their State,” she said.
Also, as the work requires
helping care-seekers with daily activities — right from using the
toilet, brushing their teeth or cleaning to things as simple as putting
on their spectacles or holding the phone next to their ear — able-bodied
caregivers in the 18-22 age group are preferred.
These
days, many care-seekers encourage their caregivers to learn computers,
driving and cooking to enhance their skills and retain them. It is an
incentive to work at one place for long, but unfortunately for the
care-seekers it lasts only till the caregiver quits.
Source : The Hindu , 21st July 2013
Source : The Hindu , 21st July 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment